Revelation 7:4-8 And I heard the number of them which were sealed… I. THE NUMBER OF THE BLESSED. The hundred and forty and four thousand am the twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes; and these mystic figures, though they may mean much else, seem at least to represent a certain perfect number contemplated by God. Let it be a mystery, this apparent limitation of the number of the elect! let God's foreknowledge and man's freewill defy our explanation, and be confused in our attempt to see the relation of number to Him who is infinite! — yet the believer feels a sensation of repose in the thought that the work answers to the design, and that the number of the redeemed is perfect according to the will of God. In all our anticipations of the result of labour for God, this faith must rule our hearts, viz., that the Divine love will not be disappointed. Care must be had for the few, that they may lack nothing which the Church can give. II. THERE IS A GREAT MULTITUDE. There are few minds that are not swayed by a comparison of numbers. The multitude who agree to forget God charm us with the thought of impunity, if we be no worse than they; the difficulty of holy living is increased by its singularity. Is not one blessing, which we derive from a contemplation of the angels, the thought of support which the obedience of their "innumerable company" lends to cheer the hearts of those who on earth are fighting against numbers? III. THEIR HAPPINESS. IV. THERE IS A REASON WHY EVEN CHRISTIANS HESITATE TO CALL A MAN HAPPY TILL HE IS DEAD, not because he may fall into misfortune, but into sin. As long as life lasts, so long lasts temptation. Exhaustion of body, or extremity of pain, or influence of opiates, or dreadful memory of early sins, exercises at times a desperate tyranny over the quiet of the closing day. Therefore with such dangers even to the last, well may we hold our breath and cal no man happy till he be dead. V. THERE IS IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE SCARCELY A SORER TRIAL THAN DOUBT. And not only in matters of speculation and doubt, but in every common incident of daily life, let us force ourselves to imagine what our departed friends now feel, not what they once felt. VI. A CONTEMPLATION OF THE DEAD WILL RELIEVE US OF THE PAINFUL THOUGHT THAT DEATH CUTS SHORT THE WORK OF LIFE. The life beyond the grave has been beautifully compared to the heavens at night. Think how, at the creation of day and night, Adam must have marvelled to see the sun withdraw; how dread and awful must have been the first darkness veiling from his eyes a world of perfect beauty; what a blank it must have appeared in his sight! But greater far was his amazement when stars broke out, and one by one lit up the hollow vaults of heaven, and the whole spaces of the air were jewelled with bright orbs, and countless worlds like unto his own were presented to his eyes! If the sun by day can so blind us, and the darkness of nightfall can reveal so many worlds, why may not death not only compensate a man for the loss of life, but open to his clearer vision regions of untraversed light which it had not entered into his heart to conceive? VII. REMEMBER ABOVE ALL THINGS THAT THE HAPPINESS OF THOSE WE SPEAK OF DEPENDS NOT ON THEMSELVES. God Himself is their light and life and their exceeding great reward; their eyes rest on Him; salvation is His free gift. (Canon Furse.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. |
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